Should drug cheats be banned?

[owti1997]

I am interested to get an idea from cyclists in general (weekend warriors, elite racers, road, mtb, social riders etc) of how they think drug cheats should be dealt with.

My opinion - ban them for life from all levels of competition in all sports. Allocate more funds to laboratory testing etc, and trapping procedures.

The option to allow drug cheating would eventually kill cycling.

There will always be some secondrate cyclists who cheat. But with a culture of zero tolerance I would expect that should they escape sanction because of failures in the system, then their contemporaries would smell them out - who of the elite non-drugusers likes to lose to a secondrate competitor?

Edited November 17, 2012 by owti1997

[JensV]

you have to go after the team management and the UCI too. Kill the incentive otherwise you never stop the problem.

[Jigghead]

I think that a lifetime ban should be imposed. If the riders refused to dope, then the teams would have little clout when it comes to forcing them to dope. If a rider refuses and has his contract cut, then he needs to spill the beans.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not sure we could ban the UCI

 

The problem is, riders say their teams forced them to do so, but no one ever comes out and says I'm leaving because my team wants me to dope. They just go along with it. Ultimately, the responsibility should rest with those who are bing jabbed with the drugs?

[alsoran]

Its not quite that black and white tho. Banning someone for using a legal product that has been contaminated would be a bit harsh

[Jigghead]

Its not quite that black and white tho. Banning someone for using a legal product that has been contaminated would be a bit harsh

 

Surely as a professional sportsman you should take all the required steps to ensure that your "supplements" are contaminant free? These days there is enough control over the growing of food & the disclosure of what goes into our food during production that this should not be allowable as a valid defense.

 

As soon as the availability of mitigating factor in defense of testing positive exists, someone will find a way to "work the system". We've seen this countless times.

 

I think zero tolerance needs to be enforced under all circumstances.

[3000V6]

should be some sort of ban, depends on what the drug is, it appears that there are so many types of different illegal substances, hope my asthma pump is not part of this